CT, of the “Arizona Criminal Justice Reform Coalition” (ACJRC) sent the following email to Georgia. (I do not know what the ACJRC is and can’t find a web site, I also don’t know what, if any of this is true although CT does seem to know a lot of specifics about what goes on in the prison that is already there). CT still does not want me to share her name (and I don’t know what her full name is anyway).

howardsgoodyearblog generally supports privatization of government services where it makes sense and can reduce costs. Locating prisons near elementary schools and high end neighborhoods does not make a lot of sense to me, however.

NO to private prisons in Goodyear and Arizona; NO to new construction of massive facilities in Arizona, a state with serious water problems, drought, extreme temperatures and scarce resources, along with unprecedented amount of unsold homes. Luxury neighborhoods and prisons do not mix together. All the PR work cannot hide this. Who is doing the West Valley planning?

This is in response to your letter saying Arizona Department of Corrections Director Chuck Ryan, not you, is making the decision on the prison beds. You stated the ADC Director Chuck Ryan is making the decision about the prison beds, not you or the council. You were elected to fight for the people NOT the special interests and lobbyists who control the state (i.e. Coughlin, CCA in Governor’s office). Ryan is the same Corrections official who was sent to Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan and other foreign prisons to build and set up those prisons (boondoggles) during the Iraq war and was there during the torture and abuse of 2004 rejected by the people and never used.

No warden or officer who was part of this shameful torture period in America, should never be allowed back in the United States to work again in Corrections and the prison system, just as a doctor, nurse or other caregivers lose their careers at the first sign of abuse of any kind, not even rising to the disgraceful level of Abu Ghraib.

How does one man, a prison director, with a troubled background and a failing state prisons, Perryville prison — one that has gone backwards under his watch — have that responsibility? We believe it is your responsibility along with the council to take a strong stand to stop this massive prison growth turning Goodyear into a “prison town” and the state of Arizona “officially” into a “prison state”. Just look at Florence to see what it looks like.

It is disappointing to your constituents, citizens and taxpayers that you (and the state legislators who passed the bill) did not appear at the public hearing to fight against 5,000 beds, adding to the already 4,500 beds in Goodyear.

Litchfield Mayor Shoaf’s letter read at the public hearing, about the “broken promise” by the state legislators was courageous and moving.

Private prisons are bad business and a terrible business / jobs model for any community. The private prisons are responsible for making the U.S. the #1 jailer in the world and turning America “land of the free” into a myth. Massive projects done behind closed doors and jammed down the peoples throats “off-season” (snowbirds up north), parents busy getting children back to school is no way to handle changing the character and direction of the state.

Developers and special interests have developed luxury housing for the areas with large scale big box stores, with no planning for small neighborhood shops and restaurants in pedestrian settings like Litchfield or Verrado.

Goodyear and the West Valley do not need another massive facility, like a densely populated prison using scarce resources like water. The water shortages and contaminated/poisoned water is very much a concern in Arizona, California and the Southwestern states. It is irresponsible to build more when this is a reality and being ignored.

The many unexplained, unnecessary deaths of young female inmates at Perryville are being ignored, along with the illness, disease and inhumane conditions of confinement in this desert prison where extreme temperatures over 105 degrees last for months, where there is no air conditioning for the women, yet the men have air conditioning; where old swamp coolers are used that don’t function most of the time; where the air quality and ventilation is poor quality as the women are jammed in a cell built for one, with solid doors in the size of a MBR closet of a Pebblecreek home.

Solution: fix what we have, reform Arizona’s draconian mandatory minimum sentencing scheme that would reduce the prison population and begin to close prisons such as other conservative states are doing and stop wasting taxpayers $$’s on incarceration as education, training and community services are being slashed to the bone.

Perryville Prison for women and adolescents, is minutes from your offices, yet you ignore what is being done to the women and children in your backyard, the mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and their children and families who visit them. You sit in a position of privilege, while you ignore your “sisters” as they die and their health care is grossly neglected. These women were not given life sentences yet are facing life sentences or death in your backyard prison.

Something as simple as this is being ignored: When visitors arrive with their children there are no books, crayons, games, like they’ve had for years and people are being told they are not allowed to donate to the unit. This has gone on for months now. These visitors are taxpayers being treated like criminals. Their children are our future and there is nothing for them during the visit. This is shameful. This is how women and their families are treated. There is no rehabilitation, only warehousing. What kind of society are you creating in your city, county and state?

It’s time for your serious input to STOP the mass incarceration of Arizona’s people and visitors. Prisons in the state should be for those sentenced in the state. Arizona should not be allowing to import inmates in this profitable scheme for Federal $$’s.

We demand that you write a letter from the people to ADC Director Ryan and the state legislators to stop the 5,000 prisons beds and stop this travesty upon the state of Arizona and it’s people and future. If this is not stopped Arizona officially became a “prison state” and is no longer a tourist and fun state to visit but one that puts ALL at risk for the broken criminal justice system made up of laws to put them as great risk for destruction. Laws created to get Federal $$’s in order to exist.